Community Resilience

The world's largest annual environmental civic action, mobilizing 30-40 million volunteers across 110+ countries for coordinated cleanup efforts, tree planting, and environmental awareness. Partnered with UNEP, it addresses the global challenge of mismanaged waste through collective action.

ActionAid DR Congo, in partnership with Action des Volontaires pour la Solidarité et le Développement (AVSD), has launched a project aimed at improving access to safe, inclusive, and quality education as well as protection services for children and women affected by conflicts in the Kirotshe health zone, Masisi territory, North Kivu, DRC. This project, funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), will be implemented from February 2026 to July 2027.

The study highlights the rise of Anopheles stephensi, an invasive mosquito spreading across African cities, posing a new challenge to malaria control efforts. It emphasizes the importance of raising awareness and addressing human behaviors, such as water storage and fever response, to prevent the mosquito from becoming a widespread threat.

This article discusses formative research conducted in coastal Ghana to inform the development of a culturally relevant multi-component intervention that combines parenting support with parental mental health strategies. The findings highlight facilitators and barriers to positive parenting and mental health, emphasizing the need for community-based programs to improve child and family well-being.

Breakthrough ACTION trained Ward Development Committees in Nigeria to address barriers to accessing and using malaria services. This initiative focuses on empowering local communities to support malaria control efforts through social and behavior change strategies.

Breakthrough ACTION introduced an innovative approach to foster collaboration between the Bangladesh government and community-based organizations (CBOs) through pause and reflect exercises. This initiative aims to enhance partnerships and improve program outcomes.

This study explores Māori and Pacific Peoples’ perspectives on the development and delivery of a Group A Streptococcus (Strep A) vaccine in Aotearoa New Zealand. It highlights the importance of culturally grounded approaches, addressing social determinants of health, and adopting holistic, family-centered vaccine delivery models.

In Tajikistan, Imam Sharifzoda Azalshoh partnered with FHI 360 to reduce tuberculosis through mosque-based interventions. The imam uses Friday sermons to discuss TB prevention, treatment, and challenge patient stigma. The program provides material support (monthly food stipends) and psychosocial counseling funded by mosque charity boxes (zakat/sadaqah). This model demonstrates sustainable community-based funding for health interventions through religious charitable giving.

Cool Earth is an international NGO that funds Indigenous communities to protect endangered rainforests in Papua New Guinea, Peru, Cameroon, DRC, and Gabon. The model provides unconditional cash transfers and supports sustainable livelihoods (cacao, coffee, fish farms) while empowering communities to monitor and prevent illegal logging.

Since 1977, Rare has implemented 250+ Pride campaigns in 57 countries using social marketing to inspire conservation behavior change. Each campaign features a charismatic flagship species mascot to build local pride in biodiversity. The approach has protected coral reefs, forests, and endangered species by changing fishing, hunting, and land-use practices.

Channels of Hope is World Vision's flagship faith-leader engagement model that transforms community attitudes toward HIV. The program trains faith leaders (Christian and other religions) to replace messages of fear and guilt with hope, reduce stigma, and promote testing, treatment, and care. In the Dominican Republic, training 50+ church leaders identified 262 adults and children living with HIV, providing spiritual support, antiretroviral referrals, and home reconstruction. The methodology addresses misconceptions rooted in religious interpretations.

CLTS is a participatory sanitation approach developed in Bangladesh in 2000 that has spread to 53+ countries. Instead of providing hardware subsidies, CLTS uses "triggering" techniques—including community mapping of open defecation sites, "walks of shame," and demonstrations of fecal-oral contamination—to evoke disgust and motivate collective action. Communities identify their own solutions using local materials to achieve "Open Defecation Free" (ODF) status.